Is This Computergate?

First GOP comptroller candidate Chris Callaghan exposed chauffeurgate by calling the fraud “hotline” set up by his opponent, Democratic state Comptroller Alan Hevesi. Â

Now, Callaghan has made another phone call to the line, this time charging that Hevesi had a state computer issued to his wife, Carol, so she could e-mail her daughter.

And, once again, he informed the media of his call via press release.

Hevesi’s spokesman deniedÂ that Carol Hevesi has a state-issued computer, but he said he doesn’t know whether she might have used the one her husband keeps in theirÂ Queens homeÂ for work.

The latest round of accusations by Callaghan startedÂ the same way the chauffeur scandal emerged last month: With an anonymousÂ tip.

Callaghan said he got word of the computer from someone he doesn’t know, butÂ believes to be an employee in Hevesi’s office.

“The pattern of abuse continues,” Callaghan, a former Saratoga County treasurer, said.

Hevesi spokesman David Neustadt, however, said Carol Hevesi never had her own computer – not at the family’s longtime home in Queens, nor at their cottage in Somers, Westchester County.

Neustadt confirmed Alan Hevesi himself does have a state-issued computer in Queens. When asked if Carol Hevesi had ever used that computer, Neustadt couldn’t say.

“I’m saying that, very simply, Alan Hevesi has a state computer in his home,” said Neustadt.

John Callaghan, Chris Callaghan’s son and campaign manager, maintained it would be wrong even if Carol had used her husband’sÂ computer for personal emails.

“If they issued a computer to Alan Hevesi to use at home and if she was using it to e-mail her daughter it’s no less egregious,” he said.

The Callaghan camp has been firing off accusations and complaints about Hevesi for weeks. He scored a hit two weeks ago when he revealed that Hevesi had assigned a state-employed driver to work as a personal chauffeur for Carol Hevesi for more than three years.

The comptroller acknowledged that the employee, Nicholas Acquafredda, had spent part of this time as a driver. Hevesi then apologized and reimbursed the state more than $83,000.